Late Hours, Early Wishes
by CartoonCaster21
Summary: "Happy Birthday, Espio!" Charmy chirped, leaning over to hug the purple teen. "I wanted to be the first to wish you it this year! Before Vector, he always beats me." Espio had a chuckle slip. "Here's a present I made by myself for you, I hope you like it. It's like a pre-gift before your birthday today." A friend fic where Charmy gives Espio his birthday gift in the early hours :)


**I meant to post this on Espio's birthday, but I had an assignment sadly so that explains the delay. I'm sorry, but I still posted something! :D And from what I know, he's turning 22! Of course, you could picture him as 16 in the story below, I don't really care. I don't even know what age he is in my story, one a those two XD **

**I have had writer's block, but I love Espio and this idea came to me so I thought it could help pull me loose of this unwanted haitus, so I hope it's okay and not as rusty as I think :/ Hope it's still enjoyable!**

**Late Hours, Early Wishes**

Espio sunk in his thick bed sheets further, trying to keep as much warmth as he could and away from the early morning's cool air. He was barely awake, pretty much still sleeping as the world of consciousness appeared far away from his reach, fading in and out of it. It was much too early in the morning, and he had just faintly woken up, drifting back off into sleep.

The chameleon was exhausted from his training. He just wanted to sleep for a while and not wake up until a more suitable time. He knew by the darkness outside his window it was far too early for anyone to be up, and nobody in their right mind would willingly get out of bed at such a tender hour.

_Creak…_

Well…he supposed there were the few who decided it was a perfect time to wake…

Despite Espio barely being able to process what was going on around him (due to still being half asleep) he just faintly heard the creaking of his bedroom door slowly open. He didn't bother to turn over as he assumed he could only be hearing the noise, perhaps part of his dream. But in that case, he must be dreaming of footsteps too.

The door was slowly pushed open, a pair of small, curious eyes looking about the dark room, lying on the lump under the purple covers of the bed pushed off to the side of the purple and black painted room.

Charmy knew he wasn't supposed to enter the older reptiles' rooms as Vector's was just an utter mess of papers and albums and pictures of Vanilla, and Espio's had dangerous ninja equipment. The bee recalled a time he snuck into the chameleon's room and ended up needing his hand bandaged after he got curious of some small knives Espio keeps tucked in cases in the bottom drawers of his bed cabinet.

He had only been curious how Espio used the knives, but now Espio kept the drawers locked since only moving them to higher shelves where swords and other heavier weapons were kept would prove no help as Charmy could simply fly up and retrieve whatever he wanted. Nobody ever locked their doors, especially since the time when Charmy was younger and stuck bubble gum in the locks, but locking drawers and such for safety reasons were allowed. Nothing wrong would happen to the items then if bubble gum somehow found its way into those locks.

But tonight Charmy had no interest in the unique Japanese tools Espio somehow owned (seriously, they had no idea how he came to handling them all), but he did intend to actually _give _something this round instead of _taking _or his frequent term "borrowing".

The little bee pushed the door enough until he was able to squeeze himself into the ninja's room without making himself too much noticed. He knew sneaking up on a ninja was pointless, but he knew Espio well and knew that anyone could sneak up on him in this state…as long as they didn't make noise that is.

Charmy crawled over to the low bed over to the side, peeking over to see Espio sound asleep. Charmy smiled and stood, lightly nudging the teen. Espio muttered something illogical and Charmy didn't even bother to make sense of the mumble.

Espio opened one golden eye to be met with a pair of ambers. He groaned some.

"Charmy…?"

"Oh good, you're up!" Charmy whispered excitedly.

Espio made a sound in his throat that sounded like a scoff and a chuckle at once. The chameleon rolled onto his back, placing one arm over his eyes tiredly. "Charmy, don't you make me look at my alarm clock."

"So it's early," the bee brushed, "early bird gets the worm!"

Espio sighed, knowing he wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep without dealing with the youngest detective first. Hopefully Charmy wasn't as hyper as usual and he could get back to sleep before the lark decided to sing the morning's melodies.

Espio yawned, sneaking a peek at his alarm clock. The small digital numbers read 4:06 am. He groaned, why so early? Why always him?

"Charmy, I'm really tired. Can this not wait until _tomorrow…?_"

Charmy frowned some, disappointment flashing across his face, "I guess…"

Espio placed his head in his hands, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his thumb. If Charmy got upset like that, he really didn't want to wait any longer if it was unnecessary. So, once Espio adjusted to the dark scene and late hour, he said, "Alright, if it's _so_ important."

Instantly, the bee perked up, smiling. "_Yay!_" Excitedly, the insect child climbed onto the purple bed with the help of his wings lifting his little weight. Espio crossed his legs under the sheets so Charmy could sit in front of him. The bee grinned happily as he pulled out a folded paper from his pyjama sleeve. As he opened the tidily folded paper, he continued speaking, "I wanted to be the first person to talk to you today."

Espio raised a non-existent brow.

Once Charmy had successfully opened the paper, he smiled, holding it out to his older brother-in-spirit. Espio took the paper into his own simply gloved hands, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. He could already see the scribbles of crayons which pulled together to form words and pictures.

"Happy Birthday, Espio!" Charmy chirped, leaning over to hug the purple teen. "I wanted to be the first to wish you it this year! Before Vector, he always beats me." Espio had a chuckle slip. "Here's a present I made by myself for you, I hope you like it. It's like a pre-gift before your birthday today."

The paper was like any other, a simple white sheet, only it was decorated with crayon colours all over. The bee had always exclaimed how he wanted to be an artist when not talking about being a detective. He would draw the flowers he loved so much, or the sun or other scenes, sometimes characters from his favourite cartoons. The fridge was practically full of pictures Charmy had drawn for Vector or Espio that they hung up, others all over the amber-coloured kid's room.

The picture was of the three Chaotix themselves. A green colour that towered the other two figures was Vector, Charmy even drawing two black circular items around where the croc's ears would be to which Espio assumed were the green adult's trademark headphones. A purple medium figure holding a grey star was, of course, himself, and Espio had to smile. The smallest yellow crayon scribble was Charmy, with his drawn helmet and wings. Charmy has even taken liberty into drawing their agency in the background, which wasn't bad at all. At the top, even if it was horrible grammar, it read:

_Hapy bday Espio, u ar rely coole! Beste wishs, luv Charmy :) _

Espio didn't mind the rough grammar. He too, wrote rather harshly due to failing at English at times, he was more used to his native Japanese tongue. As Espio was lost in the picture, reading the crayon sentence over and over mentally, he hadn't taken notice of Charmy who had crawled closer and was now leaning over his arm, explaining the picture.

"There's Vector, he's listening to his music. Did you know he sometimes listens to romantic songs? I found that out when I took his headphones, he wasn't too happy but it was funny. And there's you with your cool ninja star thing, I like when you throw that around. It's ninja-awesome! And there's me! I'm smiling and waving at you, see? Do you like it?"

Espio looked up over to the little hyper-active bee and smiled, no longer sleep weighing him down.

"Thank you, Charmy. This is a great birthday present. I'll keep this." Espio said.

"Really?" Charmy asked with wide bright eyes.

Espio turned over to his second night table on the left side of his bed where sat a lamp and pictures. Some pictures were of just the three, others of all their friends, and some of the Chaotix separately. There was even one of an infant Charmy being held by a younger Espio that Charmy always liked to look at. Espio knew this and was why he picked up that picture. Carefully, Espio stuck the paper into the side of the frame, but you were still able to see the original picture of the two.

"There," Espio smiled, setting the frame back on his second nightstand. "Now I can always see it and it's with that picture you like so much. You know Vector took that picture almost a month after my eleventh birthday. A couple days after we found you. You were like my birthday present. Did you know that?"

"Yeah," Charmy replied. Espio knew how much Charmy liked to hear the story of when he came to be a Chaotix, and Espio liked to tell the story. Vector had always joked to him saying he wouldn't be the littlest anymore. "I like that story." Charmy added.

"I like it too," Espio agreed.

"So you really like my picture?"

"Yes, it's very nice, Charmy. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Happy Birthday, Esp."

**It's weak, I know but it's my first time writing with these two as the main point. I'm not too familiar with the Chaotix, but I love them and hopefully I can write more for these detectives! **

**Just quickly, I don't assume it as a headcanon or anything, but I like to think of Espio being Japanese (I know they all are, but I have it as he speaks it more) :p Also, Vector knows it's Espio's birthday, it's just it's so early ^^ He arranged a party. What I do like to assume as a headcanon is the fact Charmy is technically Espio's eleventh birthday present as he was 'found' (another headcanon of mine) by the two almost a whole month afterwards, so I can just see Vector saying this ^^**

**Hope you liked! I'm a little rusty ^^;**

**Plz R&R if you liked. Please no flames, I know I'm rather wobbly right now, but I'll get stronger. Constructive criticism is always welcomed! Thanks so much for reading~!**

**Happy (late) Birthday, Espio~! :3**


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